


Let Space Dad™ Rest

by kotoriqueen



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), let the space dad rest, space mom allura is going to make him rest tho, they/them pronouns for Pidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 13:56:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8146601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotoriqueen/pseuds/kotoriqueen
Summary: When Shiro came back to Earth, he never thought that in just half a day, he would end up back in space.





	

When Shiro came back to Earth, he never thought that in just half a day, he would end up back in space. Although on the side of defeating Zarkon and the Galra, he _still_ doesn't like it. In half a day, he was lead to some sort of cave, found some blue lion, was flown through space, into a wormhole, and meets a woman who was the princess of a planet called Altea that no longer existed. He's been claimed as the leader of a black lion, as well as Voltron, and the group he was with was labeled as _Defenders of the Universe_. And days into space, he's suddenly taking care of not _only_ Keith, but the group that had been with Keith when he woke up. He already had to take care of Keith, as well as Pidge after realizing that it was Matt's sister and Captain Holt's daughter, Katie. Now he had to deal with Lance, as well as Hunk.

Keith had already been a handful at the Garrison. From day one, he was getting into fights but doing well in the academy. With his attitude, Shiro had been given the task of helping him get along with other people more than fight. They became friends after a week or more, and, as Keith admitted to him in the beginning, his _only_ friend. It broke Shiro's heart to know he was the only friend Keith had, but he stuck with him up until the Garrison sent him on that mission. After that, it's no wonder how Keith's mood was different from when he left. He was doing well for himself, but after that time he had been gone, Keith had gotten kicked out and now picking fights again.

Speaking of fights, Lance picked on Keith more than the other way around. Although Shiro had been expecting for Lance to ignore Keith, that never happened. He'd sigh and try to be the voice of reason, and even though he would break them apart more times than he could count daily, the two would _still_ fight. Like their lions, the two were like fire and ice, and unlike the colours red and blue, they just wouldn't mix right.

Hunk was less of a handful which was great, but he and Pidge tended to stay up late at night, working on multiple things when they should be sleeping. He scolds both of them for staying up, but it's mostly Pidge he scolds. Their father or brother wouldn't like it if Pidge was sleep deprived when they saw their family again. As much as seeing Matt and Captain Holt again was important to Shiro as it was Pidge, he still didn't want Pidge overworking themselves and Hunk trying to improve their lions, their armor, _and_ trying to find any trace of the Holt's in space or on a Galra ship.

Weeks after scolding and trying to keep the team together with no stress and no fighting unless it was in the training deck, the team starts calling him ' _Dad'_. The title embarrasses him, and he pleads them to stop with the nickname, but even Keith is joining in on the fun. As happy as he is for Keith to have fun than fight with Lance, he still doesn't care for the nickname.

It's another day where Keith and Lance start fighting, and Shiro sighs, shaking his head.

“Guys, enough,” he says, looking up from the food Hunk prepared. “we're eating. Now isn't the time to fight.”

“Yes, _dad_.” the two say in unison, but Lance has a wide grin on his face.

After lunch, Keith gets up, and Shiro knows he's going to the training deck. It's where Keith goes to get any of his frustrations out, and Shiro leans back in the chair, stopping Keith with a hand going around his wrist. Although it doesn't stop Keith from trying to squirm free, Shiro still tries.

“Keith, please. We'll talk after lunch, alright? Can't you wait in my room for a bit?” Shiro suggests with a small smile, hoping Keith would agree. “You spend too much time in there. You're going to pass out from exhaustion one day.”

“Fine,” Keith grumbles, finally freeing his arm from Shiro's grip. “But it better not be another one of your _dad talks_. I've had enough of those.”

Shiro groans, hand going to his face, running it down from his forehead and down. Lance is snickering from his seat, finishing his food in a rush, and then scrambles to help Hunk with dishes. Pidge leaves the table soon after, trying to sneak away to avoid Shiro from getting them to do dishes, too, instead of spending time with electronics and such. But much to their dismay, Shiro calls out to them, making them freeze. Before Shiro could get another word out, Pidge dashes right out the door, heading for the hangars to work on their lion.

He groans what seems to be the umpteenth time that day, finishing his food and taking care of his dish before going to his room to talk to Keith. The conversation is short, like their usual conversations. It's shorter than normal, too, because Keith ran out before Shiro could begin to talk about how Keith should _make friends_ and _stop fighting with Lance_. Or, in other words – _it's the dad talk._

There's training, and then dinner. After that, it's some cleaning, washing up, and then bedtime. Hunk goes right to bed this time without any complaints, and Shiro waits outside of Lance's door, watching as he puts on his face mask and heading to bed soon after. He turns off the light for him and Shiro sighs with relief to know they weren't being a hassle tonight. He heads for the hangers, where he finds Pidge, typing away on their laptop and checking a book about Altean machinery Shiro thinks Coran gave them. Next to that book is another that helps translating Altean language. Shiro's just thankful Pidge is stretched out on their stomach instead of cross legged on the floor. It gave Shiro the perfect opportunity to sneak up and put his hands under Pidge's arms, picking them up and hearing a yelp come from the green paladin.

“ _Shiro_! Put me down! I was--”

“It's time for bed, Pidge,” Shiro interrupts, now holding them in his arms and carrying them out of the hangers. “Do I have to carry you to bed like last time or will you get there on your own?”

“I'll get there on my own, _Dad_.” Pidge huffs and Shiro puts them down. “I saw Keith in the training deck, by the way. I managed to hack into the cameras and he's working far too hard on the level five bot.”

Shiro grins a little at that information. As much as he doesn't like how late Pidge stays up, he's thankful for that. “Thank you. For that, tomorrow you get an extra hour to work on things. Tonight, you sleep.”

“For that? I will _gladly_ obey right now.”

After Pidge walks away, Shiro went in the opposite direction. He goes to the training deck, where he sees Keith fighting against one of the robots, as always. He sighs, walking onto the training deck. He's watching as Keith fights against the robot, and when Keith delivers a sharp blow to it, the robot disappears. Shiro smiles, thinking that tonight won't be as hard as the other nights, but as soon as he hears Keith say to restart the level, Shiro's eyes widen. _He spoke too soon_.

“Oh no-- _end training sequence_!” Shiro shouts, making the bot disappear. Keith turns to the sound of his voice, panting hard but still glaring at him. “Keith, what did I tell you?”

“Shiro, we all need to train hard to--”

“ _Keith_ ,” Shiro interrupts, repeating himself. “what did I tell you?”

Keith gulps. “That I'd pass out from exhaustion if I spend all my time here.”

“And what were you doing?”

“Spending all my time here.”

“What _should_ you be doing?”

“...Sleeping?” Keith answers, although not so sure of the answer. He breathes a sigh of relief when Shiro nods. “But I'm not even tired yet. Can't I just-”

“ _Keith_.”

“..Fine.”

Keith's bayard retracts, the sword no longer there. He grumbles as he passes Shiro, muttering something about how such a dad he was. Shiro sighs, walking away from the training deck to go to the kitchen. He gets a glass of water then moves up to the lounge, sitting on one of the couches as he watches the stars. Coran and Allura should be asleep by now, and Shiro should be, too, if he wasn't making sure his team was getting enough sleep. He lets out a yawn, rubbing at his eyes, and he's too focused on the stars to hear the door swish open or the sound of feet on the floor. A voice calling out his name knocks him out of his trance, making him jump and turn his head, seeing Allura.

“Princess,” Shiro says, blinking up at her. He rarely sees her in her nightwear, and seeing that elegant pink nightgown on her, with her hair braided and over her shoulder makes his heart skip a beat. “I didn't expect you to be up.”

“I didn't expect you to be up either, Shiro,” Allura responds, walking to stand next to him. “May I join you?”

“You don't need to ask that, Princess. It's your castle.” Taking that as a 'yes', Allura moves to sit down next to him. “Why are you awake?”

“It should be _I_ asking _you_ that, don't you think?” Allura questions, making Shiro tense. “Shiro, you're the leader of Voltron, and you send everyone off to bed, and yet.. you don't go to sleep yourself? Something doesn't seem right about that.”

“Ah.. haha..” Shiro laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. “If I go to sleep too soon, Pidge will run back to the hangers and Keith will go to the training deck again. I just know it.”

“I don't think that's all that's keeping you awake.”

' _Shit_ ' is the first word that comes into Shiro's mind when Allura says that. It really isn't the only thing on his mind; there's several other things, in fact. But there's no way he could bother Allura with all his emotional baggage. She's the princess and more of a leader than he ever will be. She's been through worse than he has and she shouldn't have to listen to all his ranting. He'd feel bad for it, and he takes in a breath, trying to think of a way to get out of this. Although Allura saw through his once, there's a thought of her seeing through him a second time. Allura's waiting patiently for a response, hands folded in her lap.

“There are a lot of things, Princess,” Shiro starts, looking down in his lap. “and I don't think you have the time to listen to me ramble. I shouldn't waste your time when you could be sleeping.”

“It's not a waste of my time, Shiro,” Allura assures, scooting a little closer. Her hand goes over one of Shiro's, squeezing it lightly. “Where you look over the other paladins, it is my duty to take care of _you_. Is it a waste of time when the other paladins come to you with their problems?”

“Well, no, but-”

“Then your emotions shouldn't be a problem either.” Allura interrupts, leaning down a little to try to look into Shiro's eyes. “Why don't I make some tea and we'll talk in my quarters. That's not a request either – it's an order.”

Shiro gulps, never fearing Allura until now. She's tough, strong, and has been through a lot. He nods slowly, and he sees a smile on Allura's face that makes his heart leap. They get up from the couch together, and Shiro grabs his empty glass that  had water in it moments ago, following Allura to the kitchen. He's not much of a tea person – he prefers coffee more – but he'll drink it with her, since he doesn't want to be rude. As Allura's making the tea, it smells rather nice; fruity and somewhat of a flower like scent. It makes him feel relaxed a little as the scent fills the room. The tea is set down on a tray, as well as tea cups, and Allura reaches to carry it, only for Shiro to do so instead.

“If you're taking the time to listen to me,” Shiro starts off as he holds the tray firmly. “please allow me to carry this for you.”

Allura just looks up and smiles sweetly at him, “I'll allow it. We'll just be in for a long night, I'm sure.”


End file.
